Adobe cans mobile Flash for Android, webOS

Adobe is reportedly giving up on its Flash Player on Android and webOS, finally admitting that Steve Jobs may have had a point when he refused to allow it on to his iOS mobile platform.

Often used as one of the differentiators between iOS - where no Flash support is available, beyond some third-party hacks that don't work particularly well - and Android - where a full, official Flash Player download is available for many devices on the Android Market - the loss of Flash support will likely come as a blow to fans of Google's mobile platform.

Although not yet confirmed by Adobe, ZDNet claims to have had sight of a confidential email sent by the company to its partners claiming that all development on Flash Player for mobile devices will cease.

Instead, the company is going to concentrate its efforts on developing custom applications for mobile devices - likely based around its Adobe AIR platform - and increasing its focus on HTML5 animation and interaction, something the company has been planning a while with its Edge animation tool.

Adobe's leaked announcement on the matter, provided by anonymous sources 'close to Adobe,' explains: "Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores.

"We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations. Some of our source code licensees may opt to continue working on and releasing their own implementations. We will continue to support the current Android and PlayBook configurations with critical bug fixes and security updates."